Research author Thomas Aubry said climate change is making this process much harder as it causes lower layers of the atmosphere to expand, which prevents the gasses from reaching the stratosphere.

“Volcanic eruptions tend to counteract global warming but as the planet heats up and our atmosphere changes, we’ve found that fewer eruptions will be able to reflect the Sun’s radiation,” he told Science Daily.

“It will be harder for the volcanic gasses to reach high enough into the atmosphere to help cool the planet.”

The research noted previous studies, which suggested large eruptions over the past decade had helped to create a slight decline in the rate of global warming.

Using a computer model, researchers were able to predict that over the next century, the amount of volcanic sulfur gasses in the stratosphere may decrease between two and twelve percent.

The researchers took it further, by suggesting that by the 22nd and 23rd centuries there could be as much as 12 to 25 percent less sulfur gas in the stratosphere.